With 21 Democratic U.S. Senate seats in play this November, Colorado in a single-day moved from a relatively safe seat for incumbent Sen. Mark Udall, to one of the more closely watched competitive races in the country.

“This race should no longer be considered safe for the Democrats,” wrote Nathan Gonzales, deputy editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, who moved Udall’s seat from a “safe Democrat” seat to a “Democrat favored” seat.

Udall, who is vying for a second term, joins the following Democratic incumbents on Rothenberg’s list who face tough challenges this November:

President Obama came to Denver to raise money for Senator Michael Bennet in August. (Hyoung Chang/ The Denver Post).

White House officials are using Sen. Michael Bennet’s primary victory last night to show that the president and his political team can make a difference for vulnerable Dems when it counts — hoping to spotlight Colorado as the counter-example to previous failures in Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and others.

White House officials contacted various national news outlets over the last 12 hours with a list of the things they had done to push Bennet over the finish line, including helping the Senator target women and Latinos that came out for Obama big in the state in 2008.

Bennet acknowledged the help in an interview this morning on Good Morning America but promptly hedged over the question of how much he wants the President to campaign for him in November, given Obama’s low approval ratings with independent voters. “We will have to see,” he told George Stephanopoulos when asked whether the Obama would campaign for him this fall.

In going rogue, Tom Tancredo hasn’t only imperiled Republican’s erstwhile advantage in the governor’s race. The traitor to the cause is endangering the useful debate the more serious-minded Tea Party movement members wished to wage.

By joining a party with views vastly at odds with mainstream Coloradans, The Tank could make it impossible for conservatives to remain focused on such useful things as a return to fiscal discipline.

The ACP platform calls for ending the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a key Civil Rights reform that outlawed restrictions or impediments to voters based on color or race.

Now that’s a real conversation starter.

The ACP would return all federal land, bar women from serving in the military, end compulsory school attendance, retake the Panama Canal, preclude membership with multinational groups like the United Nations, stop domestic federal aid and so on and so forth.

Granted, some of the agenda items might resonate with some Tea Partyers, like ending the departments of Energy and Education, the Food and Drug Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

But your Spotted This Morning correspondent suggests the ACP’s extreme views would turn away most independent voters and usher so much havoc into the debate as to risk a Tower of Babel environment in which reason is shown the door.

“He said a third party or a minor party would be suicidal. He encouraged us to get involved, and we had thousands of people who did just that,” Rodgers said. “They became delegates. They did it through the process. Because Tom didn’t like who they had chosen, he gave us this ultimatum.”

The Tea Party groups are said to represent about 10,000 people.

On an apparently much smaller level, some conservatives are urging Republicans to skip the governor’s race primary as a show of protest.

For those Colorado Republicans disappointed in our two choices for governor: Scott McInnis and Dan Maes. We’d like to register our disappointment by voting for neither of them in the August 10 primary — in hopes that the winner will drop out and a credible candidate be selected in his place.

(Disclosure: Your Spotted This Morning Correspondent is never sure what to “like” or skip on Facebook, as I often wish to track what’s going on with a politician or group I don’t necessarily “like.” So if you poke around on my Facebook page, please understand my “likes” aren’t necessarily endorsements. And please add me as a friend if you do visit.)

Even among the stalwart “real-guy” set, deference can be seen as macho. Under the right circumstances, even effeminate affectation can be much more badass than swagger.

Think gangster films. (As a “real-guy” set outcast, I only seem to remember Quentin Tarantino films when it comes to the genre, but they’re close enough to make my point.)

First, why do I want to make the point? Because ever since Obama stirred up wrath among the hard Right by bowing to the Japanese emperor, I’ve wanted to argue the bow wasn’t that big a deal.

The problem was, when I started researching the matter I kept losing heart in it.

I wanted to defend Obama and say Cheney had it wrong when he said Obama was advertising “weakness.” I wanted to say that Obama, as commander in chief of the U.S. military, was powerful enough to bow to a ceremonial emperor whose country poses no threat to our democracy. Obama, I figured, wasn’t giving anything away to be nice to the old guy.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.